


Bedtime Story

by lunarblazes



Category: Starlight Brigade - TWRP ft. Dan Avidan (Music Video), TWRP | Tupper Ware Remix Party (Band)
Genre: This is technically SLB lore, i did not stop writing this to think about alien turtles nope, i just wanted to write a nice lil fluff thing and then I made it slightly angsty anyway, it is stupid that I have more lore here than I do for my main canon oops, it’s not totally explicit that it’s Havve but it is, thinking about names before you sit down to write is the coward’s way, uhhhhh Sung’s a shapeshifter that’s fun
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-27
Updated: 2020-05-27
Packaged: 2021-03-03 04:28:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,141
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24398761
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lunarblazes/pseuds/lunarblazes
Summary: Sung is tired and sad and tired.
Comments: 7
Kudos: 10





	Bedtime Story

Sung woke up numb. Feeling nothing wasn’t a feeling he was used to at all, but if it meant survival from the carnage of the void, nothing was all he had. Everything was dark, and he tried to remember what had lead him here only to scrape the surface of horrific moments playing over and over and over—

_ Death death death  _

_ Static creeping in _

_ Light blotted out like ink _

_ The smell of blood and terror _

_ Screams. His screams? Their screams? _

_ Silence.  _

_ Silence.  _

_ Always silence. _

—Stop. Stop. Stop. Pause the tape of horror and dismay. Set it on a new track.

Play.

He stood up shakily, feeling around his surroundings. It looked like his plan to get away had worked, since he wasn’t dead yet, but the sky around him was pure black, no stars to guide him, no light to tell him it was or ever would be okay again. The material his fingers met was coarse, like rock, but still cold as a sheet of silvery metal. It was probably a trash pod, a recycled asteroid his people would use for storage. Maybe he could get it to a nearby system… someone had to be out there, right? The closest system he could remember was the Tríenche system— they were supposed to be friendly, right? 

Sung stumbled through the dark. Something in him was protesting at the action, but everything was so off he couldn’t tell if it was a physical injury or simply a primal reaction in his mind. It wasn’t like he could see himself in the pitch night to check for blood or outward injury, even if he was in the right state to do so. So he just kept going, the only thing he could do. The walking seemed to take much longer than he would have judged it to, though it could have just been his utterly exhausted body. He probably didn’t even have it in him to shift if he tried, a theory he didn’t want to test unless he had to.

After what felt like hours of shuffling blindly, he finally came upon the wide space where the cargo and automatic controls were stored. He didn’t know what kind of shuttle this had been, but if he was going to hotwire the controls, he would need everything he could remember from flight class. And a light.

Luckily, one revealed itself quickly, in the form of hundreds of pairs of red eyes casting an eerie glow in his direction. Apparently, he’d landed on an EMP model shuttle, set to jettison into space so as to not take up room on Lychus. The big droids were used to help younger Lychi keep their empathy in check and teach them how to control it. They were set to enable a light at any sign of movement once it got dark enough, to comfort a kid who wasn’t used to the constant light of their suns. The Somni only came once a year, and for children who were still used to the eternal light, it tended to be a nasty surprise.

He laid his hand on the nearest model, finding it to be surprisingly warm. The mechanisms inside seemed to be in good working order, for a pod that had been abandoned and jettisoned into empty space to be destroyed. The bot was huge, bigger than the one he remembered having as a child, but the feeling of seeing one again was undoubtedly nostalgic. His had had a name… Hal, or something. His parents had mentioned it at some point, but he couldn’t remember. The model had lulled him to sleep every night, kept him calm during his first three Somnus. It was associated with a feeling of safety, like a kind childhood pet you’d grown to love as a family member over time. Finding one here, in such dire circumstances of darkness and terror, was a moment of emotional chaos, but a soothing one nonetheless. 

The robot’s head moved suddenly, and Sung stumbled backward, surprised. 

_ “Hello, user. What is your identification?” _

The thing’s eye color had shifted from the same red to a pale green color. Sung blinked. “Um… Sung?”

_ “Sung. Age 7 cycles. Son of Rai and Maia,”  _ the robot said, in its smooth and mild monotone. This must have been why it was put here— its records were completely out of date. Its eyes shone a bright blue, looking over Sung intently before declaring,  _ “Stress levels high. Soothing protocol initiated.” _

Before Sung could figure out what to do about this, the robot had already begun telling a story. It was one he’d heard many times as a kid, but it was still close to his heart. He wondered how the robot had guessed that he would have liked that one.

_ “Once, on the eternal beautiful days of Lychus, a little child lived. His eyes were bright and full of life. He moved along the planet as if it were the only thing he wanted in life. The people around him adored him, and they tried to help and educate him in any matters they could afford to. One day, while walking to help the old woman Reida with her cooking, the boy found a turtle, turned on its shell and unable to move. He carefully rocked the turtle back onto its stomach, and it stood up to thank him. “Be careful, young one,” it said, “I have lived many, many cycles, and seen many, many things. Something is changing here.” The boy stood. “Thank you for the warning, turtle. I will be careful.” The turtle nodded and continued on its way.” _

Sung’s eyes were growing heavy. The story was so familiar and sweet, and the exhaustion from climbing through the pod earlier was starting to catch up with him. 

_ “When the boy reached old Reida’s home, she was nowhere to be found. He looked everywhere for her, even checking the rivers near her home, but the woman seemed to have vanished. S the boy looked, the sky seemed to grow darker and darker, and he guessed this was the change the turtle had warned him about. He swiftly ran to the main village square, looking for anyone else, but everyone seemed to be missing in a similar way. Vanished without a trace. In the center of the town, there was one man. The boy approached the man and bowed, for he looked to be a stranger, and he was taught to treat all strangers with respect. The sky had grown nearly pitch black now, but the boy was not afraid, only calm.  _

_ “Hello, sir,” the boy said. “May I help you during your visit here?” _

_ The man turned…” _

Sung had fallen asleep as the robot droned on, succumbing to the calming monotone and the familiar words.

_ “Ward appears asleep. Shutting off to reserve power.” _

  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> I am literally so sorry for vanishing for like a month and then crashing back in like HEY YOU GUYS WANTED LIKE A REALLY POINTLESS FLUFF FIC RIGHT? RIGHT?


End file.
